St. Johns County School District to borrow up to $90 million for three new schools

Sheldon Gardner, St. Augustine Record
·2 min read
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W. D. Hartley Elementary School teachers wave to students as they depart on the last day of school, Thursday, June 2, 2022.
W. D. Hartley Elementary School teachers wave to students as they depart on the last day of school, Thursday, June 2, 2022.

The St. Johns County School District will take on up to $90 million in new debt to help build three new K-8 schools, in another response to population growth in the county.

The St. Johns County School Board approved the move this week.

At this point, the buildings are referred to as schools NN, OO and PP.

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They are expected to be ready for the 2024-25 school year, according to a presentation to the board by Nicole Cubbedge, the district's director for planning and government relations.

School NN will be in the Shearwater development, which is off County Road 210, and is expected to have capacity for 1,500 students. Access to the school will be off County Road 16A and Shearwater Parkway, according to Cubbedge.

School PP is in the RiverTown Development of Regional Impact along State Road 13 and is expected to have a capacity of about 1,100 students. That school is expected to transition to a middle school as another school is built in the development, Cubbedge said.

School OO is in Beacon Lake off County Road 210 and is expected to have about 1,500 students.

Construction of the three school is estimated to cost $192.58 million, with up to $90 million coming from issuing certificates of participation. Other funding sources include impact fees, proportionate share mitigation, property tax revenue and revenue from a previous issuance of certificates of participation.

The student population in the district is about 48,847 students, and the district has grown by 13,516 students in the past decade.

"Since 2008, (the district) has grown by 19,493 students or 67%," according to a district presentation.

St. Johns County was the fastest-growing county percentage-wise, and No. 4 in total population growth, among Florida counties from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021, and from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2021, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

The county's population grew from 276,916 to 292,466 in the July to July time frame, according to the Census Bureau.

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: St. Johns County growth: School district to take on up to $90M debt